Technology Work@ VIDEO SURVEILLANCE SOLUTION
Camera Network Aids Police and Economic Development
Like many of Northeastern Pennsylvania’s small cities, economic revitalization has been a driving factor in the rebirth of the region over the past decade. For the city of Wilkes-Barre, located in the heart of Luzerne County and just hours from major cities like New York, Philadelphia, and the resorts of the Pocono Mountains, ensur- ing that visitors and its 43,000 residents perceive Wilkes-Barre as a vibrant and safe community was a primary objective for city officials.
In tandem with a string of economic
development projects designed to make Wilkes-Barre an attractive destination for business and tourism, such as a new $28 million Intermodal Transportation Center and a $7.7 million project to enhance the downtown streetscape, local leaders also realized the importance of investing in technology to improve security in down- town Wilkes-Barre and throughout the city’s neighborhoods.
Thanks to a multi-million dollar invest- ment in a wireless surveillance camera net- work that will monitor the city’s downtown and other high-risk areas, Wilkes-Barre is at the forefront of crime deterrence via surveillance camera security monitoring. When complete, the security initiative calls for more than 300 surveillance cameras to be operational within city limits, making it one of the largest per capita camera deploy- ments in the United States. Like most urban centers using video for municipal surveillance, Wilkes-Barre wanted both to deter crime and provide law enforcement with useable video for inves- tigations and criminal prosecutions. Key to the project’s success, however, was the realization that not only would the camera network serve as a valuable tool for police,
but could also prove to be a boon to local economic development efforts. “Small communities throughout the country are increasingly experiencing big city problems with crime and drugs,” said J.J. Murphy, former Wilkes-Barre city administrator. “We didn’t want to react to this trend five years down the line, but instead be proactive and implement a progressive initia- tive to deter crime and contribute to our city’s quality of life.” To facilitate the camera deployment, in 2007 city officials began the Safe City Initiative, building a city-wide wireless infrastructure that would enable cameras to monitor several dif- ferent areas of the city, such as the downtown area and Public Square, city parks, and eventu- ally schools, parking lots and garages. To manage the project, a non-profit organi- zation, Hawkeye Security Solutions, was formed to run the camera project and oper- ate the state of the art command center where the city’s cameras are monitored. In conjunction, city officials launched a national Request for Proposal process to search for the right mix of technol- ogy and integration vendors to deploy the extensive network. After sorting through proposals from 13 different vendors, the city and Hawkeye Security selected a camera and video management software solution from DVTel Inc. (www.dvtel.
com). Schneider Electric (
www.schnei-
der-electric.com) was selected to design and build the surveillance network. “At Schneider Electric we leveraged our system design expertise for Wilkes-Barre, ensuring seamless connection and integra- tion for the DVTel IP cameras and iSOC platform,” said Sam Belbina, vice president of systems integration East for Schneider Electric. “This project has proved unique given the number of cameras deployed throughout the city and the wireless net- work that serves as its backbone.” Housed at Wilkes-Barre police head- quarters, the command center monitors
Video from the planned 300 cameras will be monitored in real- time at city’s command center, where DVTel’s Latitude Network Video Management System manages the various camera feeds and displays available images on a wall of 10 monitors.
the DVTel Altitude PTZ dome and fixed IP cameras, all capable of producing dual- stream H.264/MPEG-4 video as well as featuring bi-directional audio for capturing complete details of a scene. The cameras are managed with DVTel’s intelligent Security Operations Center (iSOC) platform, which creates a common operational picture that enables security personnel to capture, man- age, analyze, integrate, and then act on pre- viously unorganized and overly complex data. The results are improved reaction time, enhancing operator productivity and a reduction in incidents.
October 2010 141
PHOTO COURTESY OF DVTEL
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